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I’d rather shoot myself than be a media dad

Kevin Maher

August 16 2011, 1:01am, The Times

New dads should resist the temptation to write about the experienceSandro Di Carlo Darsa/ Getty Images

I have two good friends, both journalists, who have recently become first-time fathers. On different occasions, and with tongues only slightly in cheeks, both have asked me — an allegedly seasoned patriarch (I have three children, all under 10) — for advice on how to handle their impending life-change.

In both cases I prattled on about the agony and the ecstasy of parenting, and about the crucial differences between firm love, hard love and weak love. But what I really meant to say was: “Do it however you want to do it but whatever you do, don’t write about it! No matter how tempting it is, no matter how interesting it seems to you, and no matter how much you want to share it with…

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